A Painted Desert
"Tell me again, dearest..." S-D grunted, when he said anything remotely resembling a term of endearment it was typically laced with his finely crafted arsenic of sarcasm. "... what posessed you to drive us all out here... in the middle of summer... to vacation in the desert?"
"Shut it, paleface," Meka muttered as he took his bottle of sports drink from the console. "It was a free trip, the gas and the hotel's been paid. All we have to do is show up, have a good time, and pay for food."
S-D hung his arm loosely out the window of the passenger side in the car that they were given specifically for the trip. It was an old, sturdy stationwagon that was well-oiled but it had a very peculiar scent that was made to mask that "old car smell" , S-D irritably flicked at the hanging miniature flip-flop that was supposedly scented like cherries. So now the whole vehicle smelled like someone spilled cough syrup on an old cow.
That didn't seem to discourage Taylor, who was playing with her cousin head-to-head on their matched pairs of pink Nintendo DS systems. Save for the stickers and different mods, they were both the same thing and both always had the same games. At the moment, they were both visiting each other's towns with Animal Crossing. It confused them that while all the characters in the game were animal people like she and Damaris, that the main player everyone got was a human.
S-D brought it up again to Meka - for the hundredth time on the trip. It was typically spontaneous and not linked to any previous conversations, yet Meka always stayed in stride with it.
"...What's with the stupid pointy hat, too? You get all sorts of nice hats in the clothes shop... made my porcupines who can't even WEAR shirts-"
"-S-D..." Meka gave him a lopsided glance. "Shut up and enjoy the scenery..."
